Judges Tackle Jail Crowding

July 3, 1986|By Jean Dubail, Staff writer

Palm Beach County`s criminal court judges, under pressure to help reduce crowding at the county jail, want Sheriff Richard Wille to keep them better informed about the number of prisoners awaiting trial.

The judges previously have discussed capping at 75 the number of prisoners each judge could hold for pre-trial detention. But after judges met Wednesday afternoon, County Judge Edward Garrison said better record-keeping by the Sheriff`s Office might help them keep the jail population down.

If each judge knew exactly how many and which prisoners from his division were in jail, he could better sort out who could be safely released, Garrison said. As head of a committee studying ways of solving the jail-crowding problem, he was delegated to discuss the idea with the Sheriff`s Office.